I first found out the news was official by seeing a retweet of Jedward announcing it. Then I got lots of urgent phonecalls and had to rush finishing my dinner so I could make some RIP graphics for the night's football matches.
Turns out I don't have many queen-related feelings, myself.
I saw a tweet from Owen Jones that something big was about to happen, then heard a load of news about the various royals heading to Balmoral. That sounded conclusive but I didn't realise she'd actually died until a lot later when I turned on the radio and somebody was talking about her in the past tense.
Other than a load of historical info, and a handful of carefully curated and stage-managed "moments" I find I know very little about her on which to make a judgement. She was obviously very hard-working, but that was accompanied with an opulence and eye-watering personal wealth that few could ever hope for, including many who work longer and harder. I think she owed a huge debt to Alan Bennett's depiction of her in his play A Question of Attribution, which established the idea that she was sharp, witty, and tolerant. Then there's a shit-tonne of gossip, mostly bollocks I suspect, from people desperate to be seen as in-the-know.
Her children are an unappealing bunch. I read today that Charles should try to reform the monarchy for the modern age. He could do worse than stop being a total shit to his employees and the tenants and leaseholders on his estates. His nasty little habit of quietly getting himself exempted from laws he doesn't like could bear some scrutiny as well.
I'm not especially in favour of a monarchy, but when I consider allowing any of the Prime Ministers of this century to be actual Heads of State, I'm less clear of my opposition, much as I dislike the notion of the House of Lords but note that it invariably makes better decisions than most governments of the past 25 years. I know that there's little more than symbolism in the UK's "Head of State" title, but the concept of Liz Truss being where the pound stops is rather sickening.
It's big-ass headlines in all the papers here, and nonstop Elton John on the radio. Our PM declared himself a personal friend, which ok.
I suppose it makes a nice break from war, random mass murders hither, thither and yon, and environmental catastrophes (ditto), to 'mourn' the passing of this dubious figurehead.
T_T
"You are feeding them, making them grow larger and more absurd, until all of humanity is consumed by their vacuousness."
"“He was listening to those conspiracy kind of videos and it was dumb as hell. I tried to look at some of these videos and I can’t even listen to them, it’s so dumb. Lizard people and aliens."
Didn't realize lèse-majesté was still a thing, outside of Thailand.
"“He was listening to those conspiracy kind of videos and it was dumb as hell. I tried to look at some of these videos and I can’t even listen to them, it’s so dumb. Lizard people and aliens."
Well, this amongst other things. Part of the problem is police with only the remotest idea of what the rights are that they are supposed to defend and uphold, combined with the notion that 'making a fuss' is a public order offence.
More evidence from the signing during the Privy Council meeting (i'm sure there's a better way of describing it!). Prior to this was a fairly passionate speech from KCIII braying about following in the Queen's footsteps and being a paragon of duty, carrying this out with love and humility - then shows signs of all out autocracy in these little asides, which are undoubtedly snippets into the true personality behind the scenes.
I get the dude's under a huge amount of stress, pressure, is at the sharp end of the grieving process and was given a tiny table for signing some comical large documents, but still, there's better ways of treating the staff. :C
"“He was listening to those conspiracy kind of videos and it was dumb as hell. I tried to look at some of these videos and I can’t even listen to them, it’s so dumb. Lizard people and aliens."
To be fair, he may not be aware of how those expressions appear, and they may not reflect as extreme an intention as they seem to. I remember watching back some video of when I was cat-herding my kids when they were about 4 and 8, together with a couple of their little friends. It had been frustrating, but not especially unusual or difficult, but I was horrified by the range of expressions on my face which were more like paroxysms of fury than anything else.
That said, he's got previous, and he's just behaved unbelievably badly to his Clarence House Staff.
